Dany held the evidence bag containing his grandmother’s dog tags and the oil-cloth-wrapped letter. Researching the OSS—the wartime predecessor to the CIA—Dany discovered a requisition for female pursuit pilots for “special duty.” Evelyn was one of five women recruited for covert combat missions. All five had died within four months; all five had their records scrubbed or falsified to hide the existence of the program. The military had lied to Robert Whitmore to avoid admitting they were using women in unauthorized combat roles. For eighty years, the truth had waited in a Belgian forest. Dany looked at the photograph of the woman who shared his eyes and finally felt the “stone in the chest” dissolve. He wasn’t just bringing home a pilot; he was finishing the mission his father had started—bringing Evelyn Whitmore out of the shadows and back into history.
Fighter Pilot Vanished…
